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cold fjord writes "Gamespot reports, 'Remember Doom 4? It's not dead! And it's now just called Doom, presumably. And there's going to be a beta. Anyone who preorders a copy of upcoming Wolfenstein: The New Order will gain access to the Doom beta. But Bethesda isn't saying when that beta might be. Or what platforms it will be on. It is saying, however, that you'll need to be over 18 to participate. Sounds like it might be a bit gory, then. More information can be found on Bethesda's Doom beta site.' Forbes adds that Wolfenstein: The New Order is set for release on May 20th."

Out of curiosity, what was the problem with Doom 3? I played Doom and Doom 2 many years ago but didn't have enough horsepower to play Doom 3 when it came out, and by the time my PC caught up it was old news and I had lost interest.

that was completely intentional.. the goal was to build mood and suspense through the lack of visibility.. they accomplished this. things like the 'duct-tape' mod kind of ruined the atmosphere:(

If that is the case, then why did they made the "duct tape" permanent in the BFG Edition?. I think there are better ways to create suspense.

Because modern gamers are whiny little shits, especially console gamers (remember - the BFG edition was a console-focused rerelease and anthology).Choosing between a flashlight or gun was great design. It was intentional and it really shaped the game (as well as showed off the lighting engine).

That wasn't the only problem. The game was about 50% too long, and the middle section just went on and on with very few surprises. I also hated the fact that enemies just spawned out of thin air most of the time. One of the pleasures of a good FPS is figuring out how to enter/explore a room without letting enemies get the drop on you. You lose that element of gameplay if the enemies just materialize next to you.

They made it really dark to deal with the fact that the engine wasn't powerful enough to render everything if you could see well.

Outright lie. Darkness wasn't used to hasten rendering. To the contrary, the flashlight and muzzle flashes were dynamic light sources that lit up the environment and models. It was very taxing. Even modern games such as L4D2 (released a full FIVE years later) don't do it to the degree that Doom 3 did. In L4D2 you can only see your own flashlight and whether your teammates' flashlights are on or off. The only dynamic light source is your own flash light (and it's not very dynamic).

1. It was way too dark. They designed it to show off John Carmack's fancy new real-time lighting engine, but went too far. You couldn't use a flashlight and a weapon at the same time, which was ridiculous and broke suspension of disbelief. (One of the first mods was called "Duct Tape", and did exactly what you'd expect.)

2. The gameplay was repetitive. Every time you found a lit hallway with an item at the end, you knew that taking the item would cause the lights to go out and monsters to appear from behind hidden doors. This happened way too often, further breaking suspension of disbelief.

3. The story wasn't very exciting. It's Doom. You already knew what was going on before you even started the game.

4. Half-Life 2 came out three months later and revolutionized first-person shooters, particularly in the area of in-game storytelling. It was also the first (?) FPS to have a real physics engine with interactive environments. It still compares favorably with AAA shooters released in the last year. Doom 3 seemed mediocre by itself, but in comparison it looked even worse.

That's the history. Personally, I think the Doom concept translates poorly to modern gaming. It is to first-person shooters what Tolkien-esque fantasy is to RPGs -- revolutionary in its time, but bland and generic today. Modern games need distinctive characters, settings, stories, and gameplay to succeed (artistically, anyway). All Doom's got are space marines and monsters, which is the same recipe that ruins most of the Aliens games. But that's another rant...

Personally, I think the Doom concept translates poorly to modern gaming. Tolkien-esque fantasy is to RPGs -- revolutionary in its time, but bland and generic today. Modern games need distinctive characters, settings, stories, and gameplay to succeed (artistically, anyway). Modern games need distinctive characters, settings, stories, and gameplay to succeed (artistically, anyway).

I disagree. The recent Serious Sam releases were great, and showed that the old-school FPSs formula still makes for a good game in today's world. Fast paced, lots of shooting, and meaningless plot. The good character helped, but it was the gameplay that really made it stand out. The problem with Doom 3 wasn't that it failed to add all the things that modern FPSs have, but rather that it failed to replicate the fun gameplay of the originals.

Personally, I think the Doom concept translates poorly to modern gaming. Tolkien-esque fantasy is to RPGs -- revolutionary in its time, but bland and generic today. Modern games need distinctive characters, settings, stories, and gameplay to succeed (artistically, anyway). Modern games need distinctive characters, settings, stories, and gameplay to succeed (artistically, anyway).

I disagree. The recent Serious Sam releases were great, and showed that the old-school FPSs formula still makes for a good game in today's world. Fast paced, lots of shooting, and meaningless plot. The good character helped, but it was the gameplay that really made it stand out. The problem with Doom 3 wasn't that it failed to add all the things that modern FPSs have, but rather that it failed to replicate the fun gameplay of the originals.

I agree with this sentiment. Doom 1 and 2 were about survival in a swarm from hell. Some enemies did a craptop on damage (i.e. cyberdemon and other bosses), others were middle-ground (barons, hellknights), and the rest were mostly pushovers. What made it challenging wasn't always the individual enemies, but the hordes and mixtures of them given the level you are in. One of the most frustratingly fun levels in Doom 2 had a staircase along one wall with lost souls chasing you. Doom 3 took the same plot, and

I found the lighting to be perfect and the duct tape mod to make the game far worse.

It was repetitive, just like every single FPS.

The story was Doom. This is not a con.

HL2 didn't revolutionize shit. HL did. HL2 was hyped to no end, but it was a generic, boring shooter. The "story telling" revolved around watching other characters do things while you stood around. It wasn't new or special, nor was the story worth a damn.

HL2 didn't revolutionize shit. HL did. HL2 was hyped to no end, but it was a generic, boring shooter.

Yes, thank you, yes.

It was worse than that. I was 1/3rd of the way through the game before I realized... this was the actual game.

You get off the train, and you escape, and you need to get to someone... and you are going to teleport and it doesn't work, so you have to get there 'manually' and I sort of thought this "get there" step was a prologue and the game would actually "start" when I got there...and i

Duke Nukem Forever, too, I actually quite enjoyed and really just found how deep they dipped into the toilet humor to be regrettable... well that and the dream sequence level.

I interpreted the completed and polished parts of DNF as a brilliant satire on modern FPS games, with tongue-in-cheek "explanations" for things like regenerating health and bad vehicle controls. The commentary on the role of NPCs was particularly excellent. I think I'm the only one who interpreted it that way, though.

I found the lighting to be perfect and the duct tape mod to make the game far worse.

It was repetitive, just like every single FPS.

The story was Doom. This is not a con.

HL2 didn't revolutionize shit. HL did. HL2 was hyped to no end, but it was a generic, boring shooter. The "story telling" revolved around watching other characters do things while you stood around. It wasn't new or special, nor was the story worth a damn.

I thought it was alive until the end of episode 3, I seem to recall it still being around after episode 1 or 2 at least, and that makes the quest to avenge it the 'expansion' episode 4 "Thy Flesh Consumed"... or perhaps Doom 2

1. it was way too darkAt times, but having something jump out of the darkness , even though I knew it was going to happen as soon as I opened the door or picked up something, made me have to change my shorts more often than any other game I played. I remember playing it in with the lights off and somehow a CD case fell off my desk onto the hardwood floor. I hit the roof! Then, another time my GF walks silently behind me and puts her hand on my shoulder as I am sneaking around a dark corridor. OMG, I th

Not to that extent. The skyhook tracks in Bioshock Infinite at least had different shapes. I'm glad you enjoyed Doom 3 more than I did, though.

It's a FPS, what did you expect? You go in. You shoot monsters or bad guys, and kill the boss at the end.

Even in 2004, there was more to it than that. Wikipedia has a list [wikipedia.org] of shooters that you can sort by release date. Looking at 2003-2004, I see:

* Unreal 2, which had a hub-based mission structure with consistent secondary characters. (I liked it, but nobody else did.)* Vietcong, which tried to capture the feel of the Vietnam War (and did okay, IMHO). It was also one of

They were both excellent and revolutionary, but also very different games. Deus Ex was more dialog based, while HL2 focused more on visual storytelling. Deus Ex had a series of self-contained locations, while HL2 gave the illusion of a continuous journey. Deus Ex let you influence the story, while HL2 plunged you into a flow of events beyond your control. I love both of them, but one is not a substitute for the other.

Nope. Trespasser was.

Oops, forgot about Trespasser. Not a great example, but a legitimate one. Thank you for the

I new Doom-like game could still be super-cool, if it were fuck-all hard and full of archviles and shit. It wouldn't sell, but I'd kick ass at it. The only problem would be AI. I think the best solution would be to keep them stupid, just like before. Crazy? Maybe. But I bet, if a 'clever' version with a 'plot' and 'advanced AI' came out, I'd be playing the new 'DOOM 2 ' mod in a week, and vice versa, except I wouldn't play the "HALF LIFE MOD" (I'd be too busy kicking ass!). In a month I'd be playing the tea

it was dark, too dark. so most people remember complaining about that. there's long stretches that are just totally dark, with 1 bit variation from total dark to navigate(if you pump up gamma).

but that was just one problem. the whole level design was just fucked up. it could have been system shock cool but it was more like "teleport enemies behind your back so you'll end up walking backwards since you know there's going to be some shit like that at every 4th corner". sure, it had

I also found Doom 3 pretty boring. On the plus side, as for being scary, that was the scariest game I ever played. The dark atmosphere contributed to amplify the scary ambiance. I'll always remember that sound made by the medical stations bip bip bip.... scary, I tell you!

When you call the follow-up to the Xbox the "Xbox 360" you get a few choices - you can come up with a new number - 720, 361, 2014 - or you can change the name to convey something else. Microsoft went with "One" to imply that it's the one device you need in your living room, the primary device connected to the TV, one you watch TV through and make your Skype calls from.

Unbiased, probably no, but he does have a fair point. MS, Apple, Intel, Nvidia, AMD have all pulled this shit. Name + number = product. New product = Name + old number + 1. Then, the company marketers get "bored" and change it up. Now, same name + new number = product, but new number less than old number, consumer doesn't buy because 1 4. why would I buy a lower number? that's not how tech works. My 5 or 6 year old desktop as a Geforce 8800 GTX. My 1 year old desktop has two Geforce 690 GTX. If you were

Naming conventions are stupid, but I think you're overreacting a bit. Xbox One is named so because they are wanting to make it the ONE device to rule them all near your TV; not because they think people are going to somehow get confused about the difference between it and the Xbox.

Apples naming conventions have been like that for 15 years. I was actually surprised when they tacked on the "2" to for the iPad 2, because they normally just name everything in a product line the same thing. You have to use either the year built, or the "generation" it belonged to. Again, that's one hell of a rant to last 15 years.

At least they aren't naming things like TV manufacturers, where you get crap like UN46F6030FXZA, or TC-P65TZT60.

Not having anything new in gameplay was the point. Doom 3 was an old-school shooter, you with a huge arsenal of weapons vs. hordes of monstrosities from hell. And that was with amazing graphics. Doom 3 might have had really low resolution textures, but I think the lighting and shadowing remained unrivaled for years.

Though Doom3 did have a minor novelty I wish more games adapted. It had a really nice way of interacting with in-game monitors and computers, and I can't remember if any other games have done the

No, Doom 3 wasn't just Doom 2 w/ better graphics. Yes, Doom 3 was still the basic scripted FPS. But, they added new means to the scripting. Enter room, kill everything. Done. Now what? Doom 2: you're done, free to leave. Doom 3: head up the stairs, and a new demon materializes out of the stairs in front of you. I wasn't expecting that, the first time. Another shocker in Doom 3 was the, for lack of a better term to describe them, the flying babies. First time you encountered them, you're walking down a hallw

I'm going to find myself another news site because this crap is ridiculous. I love SD it's my favorite news site, actually it's my most visited about 3x as much as my second most visited which happens to be Google. I don't care about the beta, but I'm sick of all the beta bashing comments instead of relevant post pertaining to the subject. You have turned me into a goddamn hypocrite just so I can write this...

My advice, please put your ego aside and give people what they want so they'll shut the hell up.

True, but in doom 3 I had lots of backtracking and running in circles. I'd have explored 90% of the "Delta Labs 3", "Alpha Labs 2", "Kappa Labs 7" whatever (remembering the map names is impossible) but then, what to do?Finding that one door/switch/PDA was a bitch, and everyone was dead. I would save game, retry days later and run around randomly again.Sometimes I got fed up and remembered I can open the console and use NOCLIP. As others said, there's a lack of action.